Latest news with #GeorgeMiller
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I went vegan on the second day of filming': James Cromwell on making Babe, the talking pig classic
Chris Noonan, the director, had been in a battle with producer George Miller, who wanted an all-Australian cast for Babe. Thankfully, a wonderful casting director believed I was right for farmer Hoggett and pushed for me to get a meeting. George had found the book that the film is based on – The Sheep-Pig by British author Dick King-Smith – while on a trip to Europe with his daughter. I thought farmer Hoggett was from Yorkshire, but the studio said: 'No. Movies with accents don't make money.' Of course, Schindler's List won the best picture Oscar that year and it was filled with accents. They wanted me to keep my American accent so I thought I'd blow smoke up their ass and spent a whole day using this Texas shit-kicker accent. In the end I had to re-record all of those lines using the British accent I ultimately went with. During my makeup test, George was standing nearby. As he walked past, he said: 'Lose the sideburns.' I don't know what got into me. I just said: 'No. I like them.' George went, 'Who the fuck is he?' and walked off. I was very pleased with myself. We had an animatronic sheep in the middle of real sheep – which doesn't stick out. The crew used to bet on which one of the flock was fake. At the end of a take, you'd see the real sheep continue to look around and the animatronic one power down. You'd then hear a crew member say, 'I got it!' On the second day of filming, I broke for lunch before everybody else. All the animals I'd worked with that morning were on the table, cut up, fricasseed, roasted and seared. That was when I decided to become a vegan. The final scene, where the sheep follow Babe, was a miracle. The woman who worked with the sheep spent five months trying to get them to walk three abreast in rows and follow the pig around the circuit. She was working with them right until we shot. I said, 'Away to me pig' and those sheep moved through the circuit without a pause. When the gate closed behind them, the crowd – 200 extras we'd gathered from the local town – went berserk. I asked Chris how he wanted me to deliver my final line and he said: 'Right down the lens.' I didn't expect what happened: reflected back at me in the camera lens I saw not me, but my father. On that thought I laid the line: 'That'll do pig, that'll do.' At the time I hadn't forgiven my father, who was a director and very critical of my work, which stung. I didn't know I had to forgive him. But at that moment, I looked at myself and saw I am my father's son and I love him. Without a doubt, it brought closure. The only negative thing I ever heard about Babe was from a woman who said it ruined her relationship with her daughter. They used to enjoy Big Macs together and now her daughter wouldn't eat animals. I thought: 'If that's what you based your relationship on, it sucks anyway!' What set Babe apart was that it featured realistic animals and not fantasy characters. The goal was to intercut puppets with real animals. To have a convincing animatronic Babe, we had to fit a prosthetic band around the puppet's neck every day and punch in the hairs one at a time with a needle. We'd start early in the morning. We couldn't afford more than one prosthetic head, so to go from a standing pig to a sitting pig, we had to take off the head, put it on to the new puppet body, and then punch in all the hairs again to make it a seamless blend. If anything went wrong, we had to start the entire process all over again. It was terrifying. Up until that point, we had always used foam latex for puppets. It's wonderfully elastic but has no skin-like qualities. We had a chemist working with us who took on the challenge of making skin-like silicone for Babe. He added lots of oil and extra hardener. It set solid but remained flexible. When we'd lay it on paper, it would leach oil. It was a kind of mad chemistry. People who supply silicone skins to the industry use it to this day. Babe's eyes were plastic spheres with a plunger inside that moved back and forth. They had a round silicone ball in front of them. We painted an iris on the ball and filled the spheres with clear silicone gel. By pushing the plunger, we could make the pupils bigger or smaller to create her big brown eyes. Ferdinand the duck was a combination of fur and feathers. We had tried using only feathers but we couldn't lay them individually and make them move. When I watch the scenes with Ferdy and Babe in the shed, I struggle to know what's animatronic and what is real. We shot in Australia and the heat was phenomenal. Silicone is a great insulator so it was like an oven inside animatronic Babe. After we rehearsed, we'd cover Babe in a foil blanket and keep our fingers crossed that nothing overheated. Closeups of animatronic dogs were a degree beyond what we were capable of. The work everybody did was outstanding but there's just so much going on under that fur. We failed – they're impossible. In the end, all dog closeups were digitally enhanced. James had moments of holding Babe in his lap, and there was never a feeling of ridicule. He engaged with the puppets. It was remarkably rewarding to see him reach that level of interaction with something so dependent on your contribution. We did as much as was humanly possible. I'm very proud to have been involved with it.
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I went vegan on the second day of filming': James Cromwell on making Babe, the talking pig classic
Chris Noonan, the director, had been in a battle with producer George Miller, who wanted an all-Australian cast for Babe. Thankfully, a wonderful casting director believed I was right for farmer Hoggett and pushed for me to get a meeting. George had found the book that the film is based on – The Sheep-Pig by British author Dick King-Smith – while on a trip to Europe with his daughter. I thought farmer Hoggett was from Yorkshire, but the studio said: 'No. Movies with accents don't make money.' Of course, Schindler's List won the best picture Oscar that year and it was filled with accents. They wanted me to keep my American accent so I thought I'd blow smoke up their ass and spent a whole day using this Texas shit-kicker accent. In the end I had to re-record all of those lines using the British accent I ultimately went with. During my makeup test, George was standing nearby. As he walked past, he said: 'Lose the sideburns.' I don't know what got into me. I just said: 'No. I like them.' George went, 'Who the fuck is he?' and walked off. I was very pleased with myself. We had an animatronic sheep in the middle of real sheep – which doesn't stick out. The crew used to bet on which one of the flock was fake. At the end of a take, you'd see the real sheep continue to look around and the animatronic one power down. You'd then hear a crew member say, 'I got it!' On the second day of filming, I broke for lunch before everybody else. All the animals I'd worked with that morning were on the table, cut up, fricasseed, roasted and seared. That was when I decided to become a vegan. The final scene, where the sheep follow Babe, was a miracle. The woman who worked with the sheep spent five months trying to get them to walk three abreast in rows and follow the pig around the circuit. She was working with them right until we shot. I said, 'Away to me pig' and those sheep moved through the circuit without a pause. When the gate closed behind them, the crowd – 200 extras we'd gathered from the local town – went berserk. I asked Chris how he wanted me to deliver my final line and he said: 'Right down the lens.' I didn't expect what happened: reflected back at me in the camera lens I saw not me, but my father. On that thought I laid the line: 'That'll do pig, that'll do.' At the time I hadn't forgiven my father, who was a director and very critical of my work, which stung. I didn't know I had to forgive him. But at that moment, I looked at myself and saw I am my father's son and I love him. Without a doubt, it brought closure. The only negative thing I ever heard about Babe was from a woman who said it ruined her relationship with her daughter. They used to enjoy Big Macs together and now her daughter wouldn't eat animals. I thought: 'If that's what you based your relationship on, it sucks anyway!' What set Babe apart was that it featured realistic animals and not fantasy characters. The goal was to intercut puppets with real animals. To have a convincing animatronic Babe, we had to fit a prosthetic band around the puppet's neck every day and punch in the hairs one at a time with a needle. We'd start early in the morning. We couldn't afford more than one prosthetic head, so to go from a standing pig to a sitting pig, we had to take off the head, put it on to the new puppet body, and then punch in all the hairs again to make it a seamless blend. If anything went wrong, we had to start the entire process all over again. It was terrifying. Up until that point, we had always used foam latex for puppets. It's wonderfully elastic but has no skin-like qualities. We had a chemist working with us who took on the challenge of making skin-like silicone for Babe. He added lots of oil and extra hardener. It set solid but remained flexible. When we'd lay it on paper, it would leach oil. It was a kind of mad chemistry. People who supply silicone skins to the industry use it to this day. Babe's eyes were plastic spheres with a plunger inside that moved back and forth. They had a round silicone ball in front of them. We painted an iris on the ball and filled the spheres with clear silicone gel. By pushing the plunger, we could make the pupils bigger or smaller to create her big brown eyes. Ferdinand the duck was a combination of fur and feathers. We had tried using only feathers but we couldn't lay them individually and make them move. When I watch the scenes with Ferdy and Babe in the shed, I struggle to know what's animatronic and what is real. We shot in Australia and the heat was phenomenal. Silicone is a great insulator so it was like an oven inside animatronic Babe. After we rehearsed, we'd cover Babe in a foil blanket and keep our fingers crossed that nothing overheated. Closeups of animatronic dogs were a degree beyond what we were capable of. The work everybody did was outstanding but there's just so much going on under that fur. We failed – they're impossible. In the end, all dog closeups were digitally enhanced. James had moments of holding Babe in his lap, and there was never a feeling of ridicule. He engaged with the puppets. It was remarkably rewarding to see him reach that level of interaction with something so dependent on your contribution. We did as much as was humanly possible. I'm very proud to have been involved with it.
Digital Trends
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Furiosa is a sci-fi movie you must watch on Netflix before it's too late
After making three Mad Max movies in the '80s, George Miller's iconic dystopian franchise went on a 30-year hiatus. The wait was worth it because the next entry, Mad Max: Fury Road, became one of the best action movies of the 21st century. Thankfully, Miller only waited nine years for his next Mad Max adventure, Furiosa. Thanks to a licensing agreement, Furiosa is now available to stream on Netflix. It won't be here forever, though, as it leaves the service at the end of the month. Furiosa is one of our five sci-fi movies to watch this July. Check out all of our picks below. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on HBO Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Charlize Theron introduced the world to Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. Then, the Oscar winner passed the torch to Anya Taylor-Joy, who portrayed the character in the prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The first third of the movie explores Furiosa as a child (Alyla Browne) when she lived at the Green Place of Many Mothers. After being kidnapped by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), Furiosa eventually lives at the Citadel with Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). She rises to the rank of Imperator under the guidance of Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke). Furiosa never loses sight of her goal: finding a way home. No one stages chase sequences like Miller, and Furiosa includes a few that rival those in Fury Road. Furiosa is also an effective meditation on trauma and survival, as the iconic heroine receives a riveting backstory. Stream Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on Netflix. Pacific Rim (2013) Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro showcased his affinity for monster movies in Pacific Rim, a cross between a creature feature and an action blockbuster. In the future, humongous sea monsters — Kaiju — emerge from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and begin attacking major cities. To combat the monsters, humanity builds Jaegers, giant robots piloted by humans. Unfortunately for mankind, the Jaegers cannot defeat the Kaiju, leading to the world leaders decommissioning the robots. Humans make one last gasp to save the world by trying out the Jaegers with two pilots: the washed-up Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and the rookie Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). The action in Pacific Rim is so invigorating that it makes you wish del Toro made more blockbusters. Stream Pacific Rim on Netflix. V for Vendetta (2005) V for Vendetta — a thriller about the dangers of authoritarianism, a preview of how oppression can lead to anarchism, or an eerie preview of the world's future? I'll let you be the judge. Let's start by calling it a thought-provoking adaptation of the graphic novel. In a dystopian future, London is now governed by a fascist regime that eliminates the 'undesirable' people — homosexuals, minorities, etc. A masked vigilante known as V (Hugo Weaving) begins wreaking havoc on the government as he orchestrates terrorist attacks to start a revolution. V eventually takes a young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) under his wing to hopefully open her eyes to the oppression. Even if you agree or disagree with the politics, some of V for Vendetta's set pieces are undeniable. Stream V for Vendetta on Netflix. Our Times (2025) Our Times is for the viewers who don't necessarily care about the rules of time travel. Instead of going back into the past, Our Times heads to the future in this Mexican romance. In 1966, physicists Nora Esquivel (Lucero) and her husband, Héctor (Benny Ibarra), are attempting to build a time machine. Since it's the '60s, most of Nora's male colleagues have little regard for her ideas and opinions. The time machine works, and the couple travels to 2025. With the improved technology and female-friendly societal standards, Nora finds herself thriving, while Héctor feels sidelined. Our Times is a refreshing take on the time travel trope, with a romance worth rooting for and pertinent ideas about gender roles. Stream Our Times on Netflix. Coneheads (1993) Coneheads isn't a film many think of when naming sci-fi movies. How can a family about a cone-headed family be categorized in the same genre as The Terminator and 2001: A Space Odyssey? That has to be the only time in history that Coneheads has been mentioned with two of the greatest sci-fi movies ever. Semantics aside, Coneheads is about aliens, so it receives the sci-fi tag. Based on the SNL skit, Coneheads stars Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin as Beldar and Prymaat, married extraterrestrials from the planet Remulak who crash-land in New Jersey after being shot down by the military. Forced to live on Earth, the Coneheads assimilate into humanity and even have a daughter, Connie (Michelle Burke). The Coneheads eventually must choose between Earth and Remulak after facing a crisis of faith. It's not the smartest nor the funniest movie, but it has its comedic moments, especially if you watched this movie as a child. Stream Coneheads on Netflix.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Supermen that never were: Here are 5 scrapped Man of Steel movies ranked by their Oscar potential
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a new Superman movie! DC Comics' flagship hero once again takes flight in James Gunn's universe re-launching blockbuster, which arrives in multiplexes on July 11 after years of false starts at getting a new Man of Steel-led feature film into production. That's nothing new for this particular superhero franchise, though. Multiple live-action Superman feature films have soared headlong into dead ends in the decades since Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve first made audiences believe a man could fly on the big screen in 1978. Even the involvement of big-name directors like Tim Burton and George Miller or famous faces like Jude Law and Nicolas Cage couldn't overcome the Kryptonite that is development hell. More from Gold Derby The 'Superman' Oscar nomination you (probably) didn't know existed 'Can it get any weirder?' Live Aid's last-minute headliner recalls offer to play for 2 billion people While the Last Son of Krypton isn't a regular presence at the Oscars — and Gunn's take likely won't change that — some of those never-made movies boasted elements that could have made them awards players. We paged through the Fortress of Solitude's archive of abandoned super-movies and ranked the five most high profile lost Superman stories based on their Oscar potential. Five years after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ended Christopher Reeve's tenure as the Man of Steel, Superman: The Movie producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind hoped to tempt the actor out of retirement for one last hurrah. Working with Mark Jones and Cary Bates — who served as story consultants on the syndicated Superboy TV series, also from the Salkinds — the team crafted a tale that saw Superman seemingly dying in a fight with intergalactic nemesis Braniac and regaining his powers after an extended stint in Kandor, the last-surviving Kryptonian city that was spared destruction by being preserved in a bottle. (The script was written just prior to DC Comics killing off the Man of Steel in the mega-selling "Death of Superman" storyline.) In a 2008 interview, Bates revealed that Superman: Reborn was in early pre-production when the Salkinds sold the film rights back to Warner Bros. The version of the script circulating online has a grander vision than the notoriously budget-conscious producers would have been able to pull off — complete with supersized spaceships and chatty robots — so the technical categories would have been a stretch. But Reborn does put a button on the romance between Reeve's Superman and Margot Kidder's Lois Lane that was so crucial to the first two movies. However unlikely, It would have been nice for them to have flown off into the sunset with Oscar nominations in hand. While Alias was taking flight on ABC, J.J. Abrams was simultaneously deep into developing an updated take on the Superman mythos that thoroughly departed from the earlier films. In this brave new world, Kal-El was still dispatched from Krypton to Earth as a child — but this time the planet didn't explode. Once grown-up and flying around as Superman, his tyrannical uncle sends a quartet of warriors to Earth who summarily defeat and kill him. But one round trip journey to Kryptonian heaven later, Kal-El emerges from the rematch victorious and makes a beeline for his native world, where the sequel would have taken place. Warner Bros. was high on Abrams' radical rewrite of Superman lore, bringing in McG then Brett Ratner and then McG again to direct. Meanwhile, every young actor from Josh Hartnett to Brendan Fraser auditioned for the title role. "You feel kind of invincible, [like] 'I can fly,'" Fraser once said about his try-out. "The cape actually makes you think you have the power of flight even though you know you don't." But when the script leaked online, an overwhelmingly negative response from fans — along with McG's decision to drop out a second time — helped scuttle the shoot. While Flyby certainly wouldn't have won any awards with the Comic-Con crowd, the enhanced role of Krypton's alien landscape and culture might have afforded the movie production design, makeup and costume consideration among Oscar voters. No, not that one. Years before the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel bonded over their mother's shared name, Warner Bros. developed another crossover confrontation for its two flagship heroes. Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker developed a premise with a punch-up by Akiva Goldsman that found a retired Bruce Wayne getting back into the crimefighting game after his bride-to-be is murdered by the Joker. Lex Luthor then exploits Bruce's grief to briefly turn the resurgent Batman against Superman until the dynamic duo realize the true puppet master pulling their strings. The late Wolfgang Petersen was enlisted to direct that first attempt at a live-action World's Finest meet-up, while then-rising stars Colin Farrell and Jude Law were the leading contenders to play Batman and Superman, respectively. "It was so dark," Goldsman once said of the script — ultimately too dark for the studio to put into production. But Petersen did have a reliable track record at the Academy Awards, scoring a Best Director nod for Das Boot and later overseeing action hits like Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, which frequently factored into such below the line races as Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. His Batman vs. Superman might have mustered some Oscar attention in those categories... as opposed to the (golden) raspberries that greeted the 2016 take. Out of the ashes of another, non-Salkind stab at a Superman: Reborn script rose Kevin Smith's legendary near-miss with the hero. The Clerks auteur and noted comic book aficionado put his own spin on the death and resurrection of Superman, crafting a mammoth script that incorporated such villains as Lex Luthor, Braniac, Doomsday, and — at the behest of producer Jon Peters — a giant spider. Peters brought his Batman director Tim Burton aboard and the filmmaker picked noted Superman stan Nicolas Cage as his ideal Kal-El. Rewrites were made, costumes tests were filmed and parts of sets were constructed before Warner Bros. ultimately canceled the movie amid their uncertainty about Burton's vision and the movie's cost. Decades later, Cage's Superman would finally get to fight that giant spider in 2023's The Flash, although the actor complained that his cameo was rewritten by "inhumane" A.I. Meanwhile, test footage and concept art from Burton's abandoned film is plentiful online and point to a version of Superman that would have been as visually striking as the director's two Batman productions — both of which scored Oscar recognition. (Batman won for production design, while Batman Returns was nominated makeup and visual effects.) If nothing else Jose Fernandez's sculpted super-suit would have been a shoo-in for a costume nod. After George Miller's motion capture-enhanced animated musical Happy Feet danced away with the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2006, the Mad Max maestro turned his attention to bringing that tech into the DC Universe. The film would have brought together all of the DC super-friends — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Martian Manhunter — as they take on the forces of billionaire bad guy Maxwell Lord, played by Jay Baruchel. Miller had cast D.J. Cotrona as his Superman and the actor had an intensive two months training session in Australia as shooting neared. "The Superman suit we were going to use is still my favorite that I've ever seen," Baruchel once raved. "From afar it looked normal, but if you got real close you saw that all of the blue [parts] were covered in super-small Kryptonian writing. It was just gorgeous." Unfortunately, the rest of us never got to see it. The 2008 writers' strike postponed production and the smash success of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight made the studio rethink how they wanted to use Batman going forward. But Miller's demonstrated facility with mo-cap would almost certainly have made the film a leading candidate for a visual effects Oscar. And, in fact, had it stuck to its 2009 release date, it would have faced off against James Cameron's Avatar in that category. The Big Blue Boy Scout vs. big blue aliens from Pandora? That's a battle Superman may just have won. Best of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'The Batman 2': Returning cast, script finalized Tom Cruise movies: 17 greatest films ranked worst to best 'It was wonderful to be on that ride': Christian Slater talks his beloved roles, from cult classics ('Heathers,' 'True Romance') to TV hits ('Mr. Robot,' 'Dexter: Original Sin') Click here to read the full article.
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
One Of The Best Action Movies Ever Made Lands On Netflix Today
Mad Max: Fury Road If you enjoy a good summer blockbuster and would like to do that from the comfort of your own home, I have a terrific pick for you today. If you enjoy car chases through the desert in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, filled with outlandish characters, massive explosions and some of the best action sequences ever filmed, look no further than Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller's epic action masterpiece which lands on Netflix today. It's hard to believe, but the film is actually ten-years-old now. I still remember seeing it for the first time in theaters a decade ago and being completely blown away. I've seen it several times since, and that feeling of pure awe never leaves. Even beyond the adrenaline-filled, heart-pounding action, there's just something so incredible about this movie and how it was filmed. For starters, director George Miller and artists including Brendan McCarthy came up with 3,500 panels of storyboards before any work was done on the script itself. Miller, who had written only a brief outline at this point, wanted to visualize the film and effectively created an extensive graphic novel in the process. The final cut of the film mirrors these storyboards almost exactly. The concept and storyboard work began in the late 90s, but 9/11 happened and plans to film in Africa were thwarted. The production moved to Australia, but flooding left the landscape too verdant for a Mad Max movie, and so well over a decade after all this began the filming moved back to Namibia in 2012. Mel Gibson was originally slated to reprise his role as Max, but the delays made this impossible and the part was recast with Tom Hardy filling Gibson's boots. Charlize Theron was cast as Imperator Furiosa. The story follows Max as he helps Furiosa escape the dastardly warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and his War Boys, including Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Furiosa has freed the slave-wives of Immortan Joe, but the warlord won't let them go easily. What follows is one of the most intense, brilliantly filmed car chases ever put to film. Over 200 outlandish cars were created for Fury Road and kept for years in storage until filming could begin. It's genuinely one of the most insane cinematic works of all time and while I absolutely recommend you watch it on a 4k Blu-Ray disc (or check out the black and white 'Black and Chrome' edition, which is Miller's preferred version) it will still look and sound great on Netflix. Miller wanted to release a silent version of the film, but this never happened. Netflix is also about to lose Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga which serves as a prequel to Fury Road. Definitely watch them in the order they were released, however, as the prequel functions better once you've already seen the original. While I recommend you watch the first three Mad Max films also, you certainly don't have to prior to watching Fury Road, which is effectively a franchise reboot more than a proper sequel. I thought Furiosa was excellent with great performances from stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as the rather demented warlord, Dementus – though it's still not on the same level as Fury Road. Be sure to also go watch Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which just became available on streaming last week.
